KTDA commitment to quality yields led to the  highest dividend  

KTDA Holding Chairman Enos Njeru

The Mountain Journal 

editor@themountainjournal.co.ke

KTDA Holdings last year earned Sh89.2 billion  from the monthly payment up from the previous year of Sh67.7 billion.

In the year the board approved a dividend of Sh 1,042,960,800  for the year ending June 30th, which will be disbursed to 54 factories, as the growers continued production of quality green leaf.

The dividend is the highest ever paid  since inception of the operations of the KTDA subsidiaries companies among them KTDA MS,TEMEC,Green Fedha, Chai Trading.

In the year, the smallholder factories signed a new management agreement with KTDA-MS charging 1.5 percent of the sales, from the previous 2.5 percent.

During the 24th Annual General Meeting in Nairobi, KTDA Holding Chairman Enos Njeru said the shareholders in the factory register will share the dividend of Sh1,042,960,800 .

Mr Njeru noted that the tea sector was facing challenges related to green leaf quality  and cost management which the directors and agency staff are actively addressing.

“Politics in the sector has been identified as one of the challenges that can negatively affect the multi billion  shillings industry,” said Njeru in his report.

Between July 1, 2023 and June 30,2024, he said, the  total payment to the tea farmers amounted to Sh89.2 billion through the sale of made tea 

The increment of 31.7 percent is attributed to the impressive exchange rate of the dollar to Kenya shilling, and the rise of tea sales  from 259.5 million kgs to 288.6 million kgs in the year under review.

He further revealed that Kenyan shilling was weak compared to the dollar in February this year recovered, a factor likely to affect the tea business and farmers returns in a short term.

 To mitigate the challenges, the factories were advised to consider reducing production cost without compromising quality of the tea.

For the year,  green leaf payments to counties were Murang’a Sh10.8 billion,Meru Sh10.3 billion, Bomet Sh10 billion,Kirinyaga Sh9.5 billion, and Kericho Sh8.9 billion.

 The least earners were Trans Nzoia Sh 389.2 million, Vihiga Sh576.9 million, Nandi Sh1.5 billion, Tharaka Nithi Sh1.6 billion and Kisii Sh2.6 billion.

KTDA CEO Wilson Muthaura said factories processed 1.412 billion kgs of green leaf, up from the 1.146 billion kgs of the previous year.

KTDA-Management Service, Mr Muthaura said earned Sh2.94 billion from Sh2.28 billion, while the annual expenditure was Sh1.9 billion compared to the previous Sh1.57 billion.

In the year, he further explained that KTDA run factories sold 319,479,739 kgs of made tea compared to the previous 266,558,102 kgs.

 In the meeting, the forum suspended the clause on rotational election for the directors until AGM in 2027.